Myself and biking friend Marina in our snazzy "lava lamp " print capris, in Texas before the ride.
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| Tux and Ms. Ike helping me pack. |
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Salt Lake sister and I (aka "Team Lava-we sizzle"costumed for preride costume party. |
Albuquerque sister "en costume."
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The Wolf leading the Samba Line.
 Poppies along a typical road |
We even got to do 12 miles in Idaho.
Myself and Wolf at the finish line.
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| Meanwhile in Salt Lake. The Little Red Ride is an all female bike ride to raise funds for the Huntsman Cancer Research Center and Womens' breast cancer. It is sponsored by the Bonneville Bike Club, also in Salt Lake City. Since it an all women's ride, various male members of the bike club cross dress as females, according the the yearly theme. This year it was Carnaval, so there was a distinctly Rio flavor to the whole event. There is always a Wolf in full costume, at a Red Riding Hood, also appropriately costumed. There are often other supporting costume characters. They all handle the festivities and during the ride, go out to the various SAG stops to make appearances. In the starting area there are always ongoing music, food and vendors during the ride, along with various sponsoring booths (cliff bars, sock suppliers, shorts, jerseys and riding skirts, a womens' law firm, the Huntsman Institute and several more that vary from year to year). The ride fee includes the pre ride dinner, a pre ride breakfast, lunch on the ride, a lime rickey and an ice cream afterward along with lovely SAG stops. This is a yearly event that I take part in along with 1 older sister (in Purple in costume) and one younger sister (in red in costume). It involves me driving from Houston , Texas with my bike , to Albuquerque to meet my older sister. We then load my bike and her bike into her van and drive to Salt Lake City to meet up with younger sister. We transfer the two bikes to her bike rack, throw the third bike into the van and the afternoon before the ride head out for Lewiston, Utah,re and the start line. Lewiston is about 20 miles north of Logan Utah in the Cache Valley. and about 10 miles south of the Idaho border. It is a river valley situated between two branches of the Wasatch range and is primarily flat with occasional gentle rolls, agricultural land, spotted with small towns. Very rural and bucolic. The night before the ride there is are a lot of pre- ride activities. Since it held at a county fairgrounds, a lot of people drive motor homes and or camp out, it is a casual outdoor event which includes browsing the vendors, having dinner, live music, a costume parade with both individual and "team or group" winners and some sort of a dance line. In honor of this years theme of Carnaval, we were all taught to Samba and did a dance line around the field, before we had to Samba across the stage in our costumes. Since we had all signed up for the 70 mile/100 mile distance, we were in one of the earlier starts. This year there were 3500 riders so the police hold the start waves to about 100 each at five minute intervals. This helps avoid the usual glut start with people wobbling and or stopping and starting to avoid hitting other riders. The police control/help out for the first couple of miles by signaling corners and directing traffic (of which there is very little.) My older sister was still recovering from a hip replacement early in the year so she didn't want to ride far or fast. My other sister and I rode at her pace to the first SAG stop at 13 mile and then went on to do the longer route. The weather was especially ideal for me, coming as I was from already hot and humid Houston. The temperature was in the high 60's when we started and had almost reached 80 when we stopped 5 hours later. There was no humidity to mention and a full spring sun along with a gentle cool breeze. Perfect. So we settled in and rode, getting complimented on the lava pants by almost everyone who passed us, and chatting with people we passed. After lunch (subway sandwiches, fresh salad, chips, candy bars and drinks at a small shaded city park the ride started into a few gentle rolls and a couple of long not horribly steep inclines. The reward came at about mile 40 when we had a brief but but screamingly fun downhill. I always panic and pull up at about 30 but this time I let myself go to 36 before reality and the thought of hitting a rock forced me to apply the brakes a bit. It was great fun. The only other excitement was to discover, at mile 50 that the hundred mile loop (which included the 70 mile circuit) was closed off early due to road construction. since it was only 2:00 we talked to the support drivers and agreed that we would go on into Idaho to do the remainder of the 70 mile circuit on our own responsibility. The riding was much the same except that now I can add Idaho to the states that I have ridden in. We gave our older sister a call when we were about a mile out from the finish line so she met us, cowbell in hand and rang us in. The finish line is always like a reception line. One of the volunteers was handing out bead necklaces, another was handing out the tradition ride bracelet and the third was handing out Lime Rickeys ( or in our case cola since the Lime Rickeys went early.) I always end up in a very inelegant position of balancing on one leg leaning forward on the on the handle bars while swinging my other leg straight out behind me up and over the seat. As I was doing this while holding a glass of cola, it didn't help when the bead volunteer swung a couple of necklaces over my head. These promptly hooked on the brake hood of the my bike. Fortunately one of the sisters saw my predicament, grabbed my cup of soda, thus freeing a hand to unhook the necklaces and finish getting off my bike without falling down if front of everybody at the end of the ride. Whew! We hung around a bit, shopped the vendors, talked to the other riders. My younger sister had gotten clever and written out the website for the "lava lamp" pants and was handing them out to whoever asked "where did you get those pants?" so I have no doubt that Aerotech designs (aerotechdesigns.com) will soon be experiencing a run on the the product, if they haven't already. I met a ride marshal who had sat with us at dinner, and she announced hers were on the way. It was a great ride, made even better by the the volunteers (100 for 3500 riders), the riders, and the cause. |
